Fujairah was one of the smallest and least populous of the Trucial States, and its numismatic output in the late 1960s and early 1970s was almost entirely aimed at the collector market rather than circulation. This piece commemorates Pope Paul VI's 1970 visit to Australia — the first papal visit to that continent — issued by a sheikhdom with no Catholic population to speak of and no organic connection to the event whatsoever.
The Trucial States' brief window of issuing collector gold closed when the UAE federation formed in 1971, making 1970 a particularly dense year for this kind of opportunistic commemorative output from Fujairah specifically.
Fujairah was one of the smallest and least populous of the Trucial States, and its numismatic output in the late 1960s and early 1970s was almost entirely aimed at the collector market rather than circulation. This piece commemorates Pope Paul VI's 1970 visit to Australia — the first papal visit to that continent — issued by a sheikhdom with no Catholic population to speak of and no organic connection to the event whatsoever.
The Trucial States' brief window of issuing collector gold closed when the UAE federation formed in 1971, making 1970 a particularly dense year for this kind of opportunistic commemorative output from Fujairah specifically.